DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Now Lord, bless your people, our beloved church. You have been very gracious to us; be gracious to us still. Oh that we had health and strength to labor here as our heart desires: may it please you yet to give us these! But if not, use what there is of us until the last is gone, and be pleased ever to find some one or other to go in and out before this people, to feed them with knowledge and understanding. “Father, glorify Thy name.”
We ask you once more that you would, by some means, cause peace to be re-established throughout the earth.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:3)
The soldier is full often a suffering man. There are wounds, there are toils, there are frequent lyings in the hospitals, there may be ghastly cuts which let the soul out with the blood. Such the Christian soldier must be, ready to suffer, enduring hardness, not looking for pleasure of a worldly kind in this life, but counting it his pleasure to renounce his pleasure for Christ’s sake.
The true soldier is an ambitious being. He pants for honor, seeks for glory. On the field of strife he gathers his laurels, and amidst a thousand dangers he reaps renown. The Christian is fired by higher ambitions than earthly warrior ever knew. He sees a crown that can never fade; he loves a King who best of all is worthy to be served; he has a motive within him which moves him to the noblest deeds, a divine spirit impelling him to the most self-sacrificing actions. Thus you see the Christian is a soldier, and it is one of the main things in Christian life, to contend earnestly for the faith, and to fight valorously against sin.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
A devotional to help you run from sin and cling to Christ
Today we prayed that God would help us to serve him. But we will only ever be able to consistently serve God if we remember that we are forgiven of our sin by the great mercy of Christ.
One resource that’s been helpful as I’ve studied God’s Word and his promise of forgiveness is Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul Tripp. This book features 52 short devotionals (one for every week of the year) on Psalm 51. This is an incredible resource to help you remember the horrors of your sin and the wonders of God’s amazing grace.
You could read the book over the next few months with just five minutes a day, or read one devotional each week for the next year. I can’t think of a better way to spend your time than reflecting on God’s mercy towards broken sinners like us.
I hope you’ll buy a copy and enjoy mediating on God’s unending mercy with me.